Robert Heinlein - The Number of the Beast

He seemed undisturbed. "Beautifully timed, girls. Pax?"

"Pax," they answered, bounded to their feet, pulled him to his. "We're proud of you, Buddy Boy; you're shaping up."

I decided to kick it over, learn why we had been kidnapped. Yes, "kidnapped." I got to my feet before he could sit down. "And I am proud," I said, dropping a deep court curtsy, "to have the honor of meeting the Senior... of the Howard Families."

Thunderous silence- The woman in-and-out of the sheet said, "Lazarus, there was never a chance

of getting away with it. These are sophisticated people. They have what you must have. Drop your deviousness and throw yourself on their mercy. I'll start it by telling my own experience. But first-"

She got to her feet, letting the sheet drop. "Dora! May I have a long mirror? An inverter if possible-otherwise a three-way."

Dora answered, "Teena can afford such stunts as inverters-I can't; I have a ship to run. Here's your three-way." A partition vanished, replaced by a three-way mirror, lavish in size, taller than I.

She held out her hands to me. "Doctor D.T., will you join me?"

I let her pull me to my feet, stood with her at the mirror. We glanced at ourselves; she turned us around. "Do you all see it? Doctor Hilda, Doctor Carter, Doctor Burroughs? Lazarus, do you see it?"

The two she did not address answered. Laz (perhaps Lor) said, "They look as much alike as we do." The other answered, "More." "Except for-" "Shush! It's not polite."

Lazarus said, "I always have to step in it to find it. But I never claimed to be bright."

She didn't answer; we were looking at ourselves in the mirror. The resemblance was so great as to suggest identical twins as with Lapis Lazuli and Lorelei Lee-Yes, I had known at once who they were. Captain Auntie did, too; I'm not sure about our husbands.

Those are nice teats-I can admit it when I see them on someone else. It's no virtue to have this or that physical asset; it's ancestry combined with selfobligation to take care of one's body. But a body feature can be pleasing to the owner as well as to others.

Same broad shoulders, same wasp waist, same well-packed, somewhat exaggerated buttocks.

"We're alike another way, too," she said. "What's the fourth root of thirtyseven?"

"Two point four-six-six-three-two-five-seven-one-five. Why?"

"Just testing. Try me."

"What's the Number of the Beast?"

"Uh- Oh! Six sixty-six."

"Try it this way: Six to the sixth power, and that number in turn raised to its sixth power."

"The first part is forty-six thousand, six hundred, fifty-six and- Oh, that's a brute! It would be one and a fraction-one-point-oh-three-plus times ten to the twenty-eighth. Do you know the exact number?"

"Yes but I had a computer crunch it. It's-I'll write it." I glanced around- at once a little waldo handed me a pad and stylus. "Thanks, Dora." I wrote:

10,314,424,798,490,535,546,171,949,056.

"Oh, how beautiful!"

"But not elegant," I answered. "It applies to a six-dee geometry and should be expressed in base six-but we lack nomenclature for base six and our computers don't use it. However-" I wrote:

Base six:(1O'°)~° = 1,000 000,000 000,000 000,000 000,000 000,000 000.

She looked delighted and clapped. "The same number," I went on, "in its elegant form. But no words that I know by which to read it. That awkward base-ten expression at least can be put into words."

"Mmm, yes-but not easily. 'Ten thousand three hundred and fourteen quadrillion, four hundred twenty-four thousand seven hundred and ninetyeight trillion, four hundred and ninety thousand five hundred and thirty-five billion, five hundred and forty-six milliard, one hundred and seventy-one million, nine hundred and forty-nine thousand, and fifty-six. But I would never say it other than as a stunt."

I blinked at her. "I recognize that nomenclature-just barely. Here is the way I would read it: 'Ten octillion, three hundred fourteen septillion, four hundred twenty-four sextillion, seven hundred ninety-eight quintillion, four hundred ninety quadrillion, five hundred thirty-five trillion, five hundred forty-six billion, one hundred seventy-one million, nine hundred forty-nine thousand, and fifty six."

"I was able to follow you by reading your figures at the same time. But base-six is best. Is the number interesting or useful as well as beautiful?"

"Both. It's the number of universes potentially accessible through my father's device."

"I must talk with him. Lazarus, shall I tell my story now? It's the proper foundation."

"If you are willing. Not shy about it."

"Shy'!" She went over and kissed him-a buss en passant but one in which time stops. "Old darling, I was shy before I found out who I am. Now I'm relaxed, and as bold as need be. New friends, I was introduced as Elizabeth

Long, but my first name is usually shortened to a nickname-'Lib.' And, yes, I'm Dr. Long. Mathematics. My full name is Elizabeth Andrew Jackson Libby Long."

I was more braced for it having swapped some casual mental calculation with her. I have this trick of letting my features go slack. I don't have to think about it; I've been doing it since I was three when I found that it was sometimes best to keep thoughts to myself.

I did this now and watched my family.

The Hillbilly looked thoughtful, and nodded.

Zebadiah prison-whispered to me: "Sex change."

Pop tackled it systematically. "I recognize the second, third, and fourth names. You were once known by them?"

"Yes."

"Did you have the nickname 'Slipstick'?"

"Yes, and, before that, 'Pinky." She ran a hand through her curls and smiled. "Not pink but close enough."

"Now you are a woman. There is no point in guessing; you mentioned a story to tell."

"Yes. Dora, how about a round of drinks? Lazarus, how's your supply of those narcotic sticks?"

Pop said, "None of us smokes."

"These are neither tobacco nor bhang-nor addictive. They produce a mild euphoria. I am not urging you; I want one myself. Thanks, Lazarus, and pass them around. Now about me- "I was male nearly eight hundred years, then I was killed. I was dead fifteen hundred years, then I was revived. In renewing me it was found that my twenty-third gene pair was a triplet-XXY."

The Hillbilly said, "I see. With Y dominant."

I added: "Twin, Aunt Hilda is a biologist."

"Good! Aunt Hilda- May I call you that? As my twin does?-will you help me with the hard parts?" Lib smiled and it was my smile-a happy grin. "The Y was dominant but the double dose of X bothered me and I didn't know why. I did well enough as a male-thirty years in the Space Navy of Old Home Terra as a result of an officer taking an interest in me and getting me an appointment to its Academy. But I lacked command temperament and spent most of my service as a staff technical officer-I rarely commanded and never a large ship." She grinned again. "But today, as a self-aware female instead of a mixed-up male I do not hesitate to command.

"To go back- I was never easy with boys or men. Shy, solitary, and regarded as queer. Not the idiom meaning homosexual... I was too shy. Although it probably would have been good for me. I was a 'missing Howard' in those days-after the Interregnum-and it was years after I entered the Navy that the Families found me. I married then, into the Families. Most XXY people are infertile-I was not. In the next seventy years I had twenty-one children and enjoyed living with my wives, enjoyed sex with them, loved our children.

"Which brings us to the escape from Earth led by Lazarus. I was a bachelor, both my wives having remarried. Friends, Lazarus was the first man I ever loved."

"Lib, that has nothing to do with the story! I didn't know you were in love with me."

"It has everything to do with my story. Off and on, for eight centuries, we were partners in exploration. Then I was killed-my own carelessness. Eventually Lazarus and his sisters cremated me by tossing me into the atmosphere of Old Home Terra in a trajectory that would cause ashes to impact near where I was born. Lazarus, they don't seem surprised. Do they disbelieve me?"